Chapman's accomplice sentenced to state prison in chainsaw trial

WEST CHESTER – The cousin of convicted murderer Laquanta Chapman was sentenced to state prison Wednesday for his role in the fatal shooting of a Coatesville teen and the dismemberment his body with a pair of chainsaws.

Common Pleas Judge William Mahon sentenced Bryan Byrd to 20to40 years in prison for acting as an accomplice in the 2008 death of 16-year-old Aaron Turner, the Coatesville youth who was fatally shot multiple times and dismembered with a pair of chainsaws. Turner’s body was then reportedlydisposed of in trash bags that were never recovered.

The sentence was greeted with gasps of shock by members of Byrd’s family, who had gathered in Mahon’s courtroom hoping that he would be spared further incarceration in exchange for the testimony he gave at trial against Chapman, who was found guilty of first-degree murder in Turner’s death and sentenced to death last fall.

“You are a poster person for what happens when you hang out with the wrong people,” Mahon told Byrd, who moments before had apologized to Turner’s family for what happened to him in October 2008.